Robert Jordan (dragonmount.com) published The Eye of the World in 1990. Seventeen years, eleven volumes and one premature death later, in 2007, he left detailed notes for the final three books. Brandon Sanderson was chosen by Jordan's widow Harriet McDougal to complete the work. A Memory of Light closed the fourteen-volume Wheel of Time in 2013, roughly four million words after Rand al'Thor left the Two Rivers. The series has sold more than ninety million copies. The Amazon Prime adaptation has brought new readers to the books every season. For a certain kind of fantasy reader, the Wheel of Time is not a series. It is a canonical event.
Jordan built the template for what large-scale fantasy could carry. My own series — twenty-one peoples, a prophecy-driven quest, parallel storylines that converge over multiple volumes — exists in direct conversation with that template. Five series follow, chosen for specific structural kinship.
What Wheel of Time Readers Are Actually Looking For
Jordan's achievement is harder to replace than it first looks. Most epic fantasy can gesture at his scale. Fewer manage his prophecy structure — the Dragon Reborn prophecy as a narrative contract with the reader, carried across thousands of pages without collapsing. Fewer still sustain his ensemble: Rand, Mat, Perrin, Nynaeve, Egwene, Elayne, Moiraine, Lan, Aviendha, each of whom carries storylines that could anchor a standalone trilogy.
The One Power is rigorous in ways later hard-magic systems built on. The split between saidar (female) and saidin (male), the taint on saidin, the weaves, the costs — this is the foundation that Brandon Sanderson would later develop into the systematic hard magic that defines modern epic fantasy. Jordan's cultures — the Aiel, the Seanchan, the Sea Folk, the Aes Sedai of the White Tower — function with internal logic that earlier fantasy rarely attempted.
So readers looking for books like the Wheel of Time are actually looking for: continental or planetary scale with multiple named cultures, prophecy as real narrative engine rather than decoration, ensemble casts in which multiple viewpoints matter equally, hard magic treated as system with rules and costs, and long-arc commitment rewarded by long-arc payoff.
1. The Riftwar Saga (Raymond E. Feist)
Official WebsiteRaymond E. Feist published Magician in 1982, eight years before The Eye of the World. The two series have grown up as the twin pillars of the 1980s-to-1990s epic fantasy tradition, and their readers have overlapped ever since. Pug, the kitchen boy apprenticed to the magician Kulgan, is swept through a rift into an alien empire that has already invaded his home world. Across more than thirty volumes, Feist has built the Riftwar Cycle into the largest sustained epic fantasy universe outside of Jordan himself.
The Jordan Factor
Generational scale. Pug's story begins as a coming-of-age quest in The Riftwar Saga and continues as Pug's children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren inherit different corners of the conflict. The Riftwar Cycle is the only multi-decade epic that rivals Wheel of Time for sheer volume. Two worlds — Midkemia and Kelewan — interlocking through magical rifts, provide the cross-cultural scope Jordan built with the Aiel Waste, the Seanchan invasion and the Sea Folk trade routes. The Empire Trilogy, co-written with Janny Wurts, is widely cited as the series highlight.
How It Differs
Feist's magic is softer than Jordan's. There is no saidar-and-saidin system with named weaves; magic in Midkemia operates more loosely and intuitively. The individual novels are shorter — often under 600 pages where Jordan's later volumes exceed 1,000. The prose is more functional, less interested in ornamentation. For Wheel of Time readers who want Jordan's scale with a faster reading pace, this is the natural first stop.
2. The Belgariad (David Eddings)
About the AuthorDavid Eddings published Pawn of Prophecy in 1982. The five-volume Belgariad, followed by the five-volume Malloreon, built the template that Jordan later inherited and extended. Garion, a farm boy on an estate called Faldor's Farm, is told he is not the boy he thought he was. Prophecies collected across two millennia in a book called the Codex converge on him. The journey that follows is the reluctant-chosen-one quest in its clearest form. Readers who want to see where the Wheel of Time's DNA was assembled should start here.
The Jordan Factor
The direct foundational text for Jordan's reluctant-chosen-one structure. Garion is Rand al'Thor before Rand al'Thor existed. The Mrin Codex is the Karaethon Cycle. The Orb of Aldur is a ta'veren engine. The ensemble that travels with Garion — Belgarath the ancient sorcerer, Polgara the sharp-tongued aunt, Silk the thief, Barak the berserker, Mandorallen the knight, Ce'Nedra the princess — gave Jordan the template for his own travelling company. Eddings is frequently the entry point for a generation of readers who later moved to Jordan.
How It Differs
The scale is smaller than Jordan's. Five relatively short volumes in The Belgariad, another five in The Malloreon, rather than fourteen thousand-page volumes. The tone is warmer and more comic — Eddings wrote the quest as entertainment for readers, and the banter between Silk and Belgarath carries as much of the series as the prophecy does. The magic is softer and less systematic. For Wheel of Time readers who want the prophecy structure at its most accessible and complete, this is the shortest rewarding commitment.
3. The Licanius Trilogy (James Islington)
Official WebsiteJames Islington wrote The Shadow of What Was Lost with Jordan's Wheel of Time explicitly in view. Davian, a young man at the Academy of the Gifted, lives in a society where the Gifted are feared, legally controlled, and slowly losing their abilities as ancient Boundaries weaken. The trilogy's central prophecy mechanism — time-loop metaphysics bound to the Reserve and the magic system Essence — is the most rigorous prophecy engine in modern epic fantasy since Jordan himself. The trilogy is complete across three thick volumes.
The Jordan Factor
Islington's magic system Essence and its darker counterpart Kan echo saidar and saidin directly, with modern systematic rigour. The time-loop prophecy structure across Caeden's arc operates at the complexity level of the Karaethon Cycle. The political architecture — the Loyalists and the Administration's Treaty on the Gifted — parallels the Aes Sedai political structures of the White Tower. Islington has acknowledged Jordan as a primary influence. For Wheel of Time readers who want a living successor written for them, this is the first pick.
How It Differs
The Licanius Trilogy is three volumes, not fourteen. The commitment is proportionate — roughly two thousand pages rather than ten thousand. The prose is leaner than Jordan's, with less descriptive elaboration of dresses, meals and minor courts. The time-loop structure rewards careful reading and benefits from a reread once the final volume lands. For readers who bounced off Jordan's middle volumes but loved the prophecy mechanics, Islington is the corrective.
4. The Demon Cycle (Peter V. Brett)
Official WebsitePeter V. Brett opened The Painted Man in 2008 with a structure Wheel of Time readers will recognise immediately. Arlen Bales is a farm boy in a village that hides from demons every night behind painted wards. What begins as a coming-of-age quest ends five volumes later as a continental war between humans and the corelings, with Arlen having become the Warded Man — a figure whose power and reputation precede him everywhere. The cycle is complete. The sequel series, The Nightfall Saga, extends the world forward with new protagonists.
The Jordan Factor
The farm-boy-to-legend arc is Rand al'Thor's arc compressed into five volumes. The warding magic is systematic and rule-bound — every ward must be drawn correctly, every ward has known strengths and weaknesses, the discovery of new combat wards drives the plot. The rotating viewpoints across Arlen, Leesha and Jardir build the ensemble structure Jordan operated at larger scale. The demon threat is the Shadow: an existential cosmic enemy that humanity has never defeated, only survived.
How It Differs
Brett's world is arid and Middle-Eastern-influenced in its second half — Jardir's Krasian culture is a serious engagement with a non-European fantasy setting in a way Jordan only partially attempted. The narrative is darker than Jordan's, with more explicit violence and moral compromise. Five volumes rather than fourteen. For Wheel of Time readers who want the coming-of-age-to-continental-war structure at manageable length, Brett is the efficient entry.
5. The Lightbringer Series (Brent Weeks)
Official WebsiteBrent Weeks built The Lightbringer series around one of the most rigorous hard magic systems in modern fantasy. Drafters channel specific colours of light — blue, green, red, orange, yellow, sub-red, super-violet — into physical luxin, a substance whose properties match the wavelength that summoned it. Every drafter has a limited number of drafts before they break the halo and lose their mind. Gavin Guile, the Prism, is the only drafter in generations capable of wielding all seven colours. Kip, the overweight teenage protagonist, is his son. The five-volume series is complete.
The Jordan Factor
Hard magic at the rigour Wheel of Time readers expect. Chromaturgy is as systematic as the One Power, with named colours rather than weaves, but operating on the same principle: rules, limits, costs. The political architecture — the Chromeria, the Seven Satrapies, the Color Prince's rebellion — operates at the factional complexity Jordan wrote at his best. Kip's arc echoes Rand's: an underestimated provincial reveals gifts that unsettle the continent's existing power structures.
How It Differs
The setting is Renaissance-Mediterranean rather than Jordan's pseudo-medieval. The tone is sharper, with Weeks leaning into political intrigue and personal betrayal in ways Jordan's Two Rivers origins do not. The magic system is more tightly constrained — no saidin taint, but the halo-breaking cost imposes a career arc on every drafter that shapes the entire plot. Five volumes, not fourteen. For Wheel of Time readers who want the hard magic rigour at its most chromatically inventive, Weeks is the immediate recommendation.
6. The Chronicles of Wetherid (Christian Dölder)
Official Author PageThe Chronicles of Wetherid are a recent European epic fantasy series. The project carries the generational-scale ambition that Wheel of Time readers expect from their epic fantasy — large ensemble, prophecy-driven quest, multiple named peoples with distinct political architectures. The following shows where Wetherid intersects with the Wheel of Time, and where it takes a different path.
Scale and Ensemble Across Twenty-One Peoples
Wetherid is constructed at continental scale. Twenty-one peoples — Mist Elves, Glorious Elves, Grey Dwarves, Dark Dwarves, humans of Astinhod, Trolls, Orcs, the Undead of Fallgar, the Pygmies, the river peoples, the mountain clans — populate more than forty named locations across the map. More than one hundred and forty named characters carry parallel storylines across the cycles. This is the Jordan architecture: the Aiel Waste, the Seanchan, the Sea Folk, the White Tower, the Black Tower, the Children of the Light, the Shadowspawn — each a distinct political and cultural entity, each with internal logic, each contributing load-bearing plot. Wetherid's peoples are built on the same principle.
Prophecy Built on Physical Objects
The second cycle, The Guardians of the Seven Artefacts, turns the Jordan prophecy engine into something more tactile. Seven objects scattered across the continent must be recovered, defended and eventually joined. The prophecy is not a loose scriptural reference. It is the plot. Jordan's sa'angreal — the Choedan Kal, Callandor, the ter'angreal — served similar narrative load, but distributed more loosely through the text. The Guardians cycle concentrates the prophecy on physical artefacts the reader can count. Each volume addresses specific artefacts; the final volumes will address the question of what happens when they are brought together.
From Quiet Beginnings to Continental War
The cycle opens in a library. Vrenli Hogmaunt, a young scholar working through old books, finds a reference that sets him on the road. This is the Two Rivers opening — the quiet provincial beginning that Jordan readers will recognise as the necessary precondition for continental catastrophe. By the end of the Legacy cycle, Vrenli has crossed most of Wetherid and stood through the siege at Ib'Agier. By the Guardians cycle, the political order of human Astinhod has collapsed, the elven realms are splitting along the Mist-and-Glorious fault, and the demon Xaroth's undergoing Gestaltwerdung threatens a war that will reshape the continent. The arc from quiet beginning to continental war is the Jordan arc, executed at the Wetherid register.
Read Sample: Guardians Volume 1The Right Book for Every Wheel of Time Reader
The choice depends on which element of Jordan's series you most want to follow. Readers who want Jordan's generational epic scale at a comparable size should start with Feist. Readers who want the farm-boy chosen-one structure at its origin should read Eddings. Readers who want the modern living successor written with Jordan explicitly in view should read Islington. Readers who want the coming-of-age-to-continental-war structure compressed into five volumes should read Brett. Readers who want the hard magic system at its most chromatically rigorous should read Weeks.
Robert Jordan began writing Wheel of Time in 1984 and published The Eye of the World in 1990. His death in 2007 left the series unfinished; Brandon Sanderson completed it across three final volumes based on Jordan's notes. The completed fourteen-volume epic plus New Spring offers roughly four million words of reading. Readers who have finished it and are looking for the next commitment have options that did not exist during Jordan's lifetime: all five series recommended above are complete, and three of them (Islington, Brett, Weeks) were written during the Wheel of Time's publication window by authors who grew up reading it.
Each of the series named above stands on its own. None is a substitute for Jordan, and none pretends to be. What they share is the same underlying claim: that epic fantasy at continental scale, with rigorous magic and prophetic engines and ensemble casts, remains the form's highest ambition.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best book series similar to the Wheel of Time?
Raymond E. Feist's The Riftwar Saga is the most direct generational companion — Feist and Jordan defined the epic fantasy explosion of the 1980s and 1990s together, and their readers have overlapped ever since. For the reluctant-chosen-one structure that Jordan built around Rand al'Thor, David Eddings's The Belgariad is the foundational text — Garion is the farm boy who will not be the prophesied figure, and will not escape being the prophesied figure. For a modern successor written with Wheel of Time explicitly in its sights, James Islington's Licanius Trilogy is the closest living work.
How long is the Wheel of Time and is it worth committing to?
Fourteen main volumes plus the prequel New Spring — roughly four million words, one of the longest sustained narratives in modern fiction. Robert Jordan published the first eleven before his death in 2007. Brandon Sanderson completed the final three from Jordan's extensive notes. The series has sold more than 90 million copies worldwide and remains one of the most influential epic fantasies ever written. Readers arriving now have the advantage of a completed work plus the Amazon Prime television adaptation. The commitment is real, but for readers who want sustained epic fantasy at maximum scale, no finished series offers more.
Which of these series has the most similar magic system to the One Power?
Brent Weeks's Lightbringer is the closest structural parallel — chromaturgy, in which drafters channel specific colours of light into physical luxin, operates under rigorous rules in the same way the One Power does. James Islington's Licanius Trilogy features a magic system split into Essence and Kan, directly inspired by Jordan's saidar and saidin. Peter V. Brett's Demon Cycle uses warding, a defensive magic written with hard-magic discipline. Raymond E. Feist and David Eddings both write softer magic systems by contemporary standards; their appeal to Wheel of Time readers lies elsewhere.
What exactly defines a book like the Wheel of Time?
Four elements in combination. First, continental or planetary scale with multiple named cultures, peoples and political factions. Second, prophecy as a real narrative engine — the story is in some sense already written, and characters must discover or contest what that means. Third, an ensemble cast in which at least four viewpoints matter equally, rather than a single protagonist carrying the whole book. Fourth, magic treated as system — rules, limits, costs — rather than as atmosphere. Books that share at least three of these elements carry the Wheel of Time register.
What should I read while waiting for a new Wheel of Time season?
The five series above cover the range of Wheel of Time adjacencies. For readers who want Jordan's generational epic scale with a slightly older prose register, start with Feist. For readers who want the reluctant-farm-boy-becoming-legend at its origin, start with Eddings. For readers who want the closest living modern successor, start with Islington. For readers who want the coming-of-age-to-continental-war structure compressed into five volumes, start with Brett. For readers who want the hard magic system at its most rigorous, start with Weeks. All five are either complete or nearly complete, which is not something Jordan's own series could offer during its original publication window.
Christian Dölder is the author of The Chronicles of Wetherid, an epic high-fantasy saga in several cycles. The series currently comprises three volumes in four languages. More about the world, the peoples, and the books on the homepage at wetherid.com.
Discover the focus on political high fantasy with intrigue and a large cast, the selection of the best high fantasy books, or the companion lists books like Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, books like the Farseer Trilogy, books like the Drenai Saga, books like Wars of Light and Shadow, books like The Dagger and the Coin, books like The Lord of the Rings and books like Game of Thrones.